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Periander

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Periander
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Periander, marble bust in the Vatican Museum, Rome
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Periander, marble bust in the Vatican Museum, Rome (credit: The Mansell Collection)
(died c. 587 BC) Second tyrant of Corinth (c. 627 – 587). He was the son of Cypselus, founder of the Cypselid dynasty. One of the most violent of the early Greek tyrants, he killed his wife and avenged the death of his son in Corcyra by sending 300 Corcyran boys to be castrated (they managed to escape). He treated the nobility harshly but built a strong, prosperous Corinthian economy. His extensive building program included construction of the Diolkos, a portage used to transport ships across the Isthmus of Corinth.

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Classical Literature Companion: Periander
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Periander (Periandros), tyrant of Corinth from about 625 to 585 BC who succeeded his father Cypselus and brought Corinth to the height of fame and prosperity. Periander was probably a stern ruler, and is reputed to have killed his wife and quarrelled with his sons; he was certainly a powerful and energetic man, and his practical good sense led to his being included by some among the Seven Sages of Greece (his court is the scene of Plutarch's dialogue, the Banquet of the Seven Sages). He was a patron of the arts (Arion the dithyrambic poet stayed at his court) and he was probably responsible for the construction of the diaulos or portage way across the Isthmus of Corinth (see CORINTH, ISTHMUS OF).

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Periander
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Periander (pĕr'ēăn'dər), d. 585 B.C., one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece, tyrant of Corinth. His rule raised his city to a high state of prosperity, and he established friendly relations with other rulers. He established colonies at Potidaea and probably at Apollonia near the Adriatic coast, and he fought successfully against Epidaurus and Corcyra (now Kérkira). During his reign the arts flourished, as is evidenced by the ruins of the Apollo temple and the Peirene fountain at Corinth and the Gorgon pediment at Corcyra.
Wikipedia: Periander
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Periander, Roman copy after a Greek original of the 4th century BC, Vatican Museums.

Periander (Greek: Περίανδρος) was the second tyrant of Corinth, Greece in the 7th century BC. He was the son of the first tyrant, Cypselus. Periander succeeded his father in 627 BC.

He upgraded Corinth's port, and built a ramp across the Isthmus of Corinth so that ships could be dragged across (the Diolkos), avoiding the sea route around the Peloponnese. The money gained from the diolkos allowed Periander to abolish taxes in Corinth. However, Periander was later considered the typical evil tyrant (for example, by Aristotle). Herodotus says he learned his "savagery" from Thrasybulus, the tyrant of Miletus, who instructed Periander to get rid of anyone who could conceivably take power from him. Among his acts were sending young boys from Corcyra to be castrated in Lydia (who are reputed to have escaped and be rescued by the Samians), and the murder (and possible necrophiliac rape) of his own wife, Melissa. Abhorrence for this act was so intense that it was described only metaphorically at the time: "Periander baked his bread in a cold oven" (Herodotus, V 91-93). Their son Lycophron discovered that his father was the murderer, so Periander exiled him from Corinth and forbade any of his subjects to shelter him. Periander later tried to reconcile with Lycophron, but Lycophron refused to return unless Periander abdicated; however, the inhabitants of Corcyra killed Lycophron to prevent Periander from arriving.

Periander's nephew Psammetichus succeeded him as tyrant of Corinth but Psammetichus' rule only lasted three years and he was the last of the Cypselid dynasty. Periander was listed by most authors as one of the Seven Sages of Greece. According to Herodotus, Periander also held the musical contest that was won by the poet Arion. Periander invented the Railway albeit horse-drawn, aforementioned as the "Diolkos".

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Peirēnē
Seven Wise Men of Greece (politics, philosophy, ancient Greece)
diolchos (in archaeology)

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Classical Literature Companion. The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Copyright © 1993, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Periander".  Read more

 

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